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"Meditation is a personal creative experience, not an exercise in conformity," Fowler tells us. Having experienced firsthand the frustration of attempting to mimic various recommended techniques for successful meditation, Fowler now knows that each person must find the unique path that will allow meditation to happen. His primary goal in this book is to entice, convince, motivate his readers to embark on meditating by explaining what awaits us at journey's end.
Bliss is the result of meditation. Bliss? A realization that you are an expression of Eternal Existence, or God, an awareness that is likely to produce "a dance in your spirit, a laughter somewhere inside . . . an overwhelming sense of lightheartedness that sometimes, literally, makes you short of breath."
Beyond this feeling, the spiritual sensitivity achieved through meditation can engender a true transformation of one's life, and Fowler shares stories of friends whose lives changed dramatically as a result of meditation. Egocentricity and indifference to others are charges often leveled at practitioners of meditation, but Fowler explains clearly that just the opposites occur in the person transformed by knowledge that the Source Being exists in all humans.
So, how do we approach this kind of transformation? Fowler's humor and pithy delivery keep us engaged in what might appear a daunting task: "Fortunately, you don't have to have a quiet temperament or special talent for concentration. . . . You don't have to sit in a darkened room and light candles or listen to themeless music. . . . Nor do you have to give up an interest in incarnate things such as delightful food and passionate sex."
One thing that is important in Fowler's estimation is educating ourselves about the nature of the universe. For many, that means what he calls "retooling religious ideas" from our past-updating stories, myths, beliefs, to find the inner content. He notes that sometimes people with "no religion" progress more quickly in learning to meditate, since they do not have to struggle with ingrained ideas.
Fowler offers helpful insights into various Western and Eastern religious traditions and continually urges us to read the masters of spiritual literature, and to discover there the common threads no matter what the religious tradition of the author. The book includes an extensive reading list.
There is one chapter on techniques, suggestions for getting started, not rules, Fowler emphasizes. Most critical, though, is "keeping the vision ": maintaining a spiritual view of reality, believing that our connectedness to the cosmic reality is "an effective-and perhaps the only-way to establish complete stability and optimism in our daily lives."
Jeannie Crawford-Lee is a freelance writer and editor in Nashville.
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